The Virus
by MeowthTwo
Summary: Starscream gets Frenzy to write a virus to infest the Autobots with but inserting it and beating them is not as easy as he thinks.
1. Chapter 1

The Virus.

Disclaimer: The Transformers belong to Hasbro and the film to Dream works/Paramount, I don't make any money from it.

Summary: Starscream has Frenzy make a virus to infest the Autobots with, but inserting it and beating them is not as easy as he thinks.

Dedicated: To all those who've had one recently, human or

computer.

Pairings: ProwlxJazz. SamxBee.

Rating: M

Warning: This story contains slash(but not till the third chapter). Also battles and suspense.

Prologue.

Barricade, Starscream and Frenzy were standing near the old Multi-storey Car park in downtown Tranquilty. Starscream handed Frenzy a wireless laptop he had just looted from a shop where he'd carefully bombed the back bit to avoid damaging the electrical goods. Frenzy whipped out his 4 hands, opened it and got tapping.

"I want a virus like you devised to knock out the human communication system to shut down the Autobots' systems." Said Starscream. "I want it to attack their firewalls and then hide and work invisibly. I want it to adapt and change with every attempt to counter it. I want it to go from system to system disabling functions and programmes and spread from Autobot to Autobot, until they are all dead!" He laughed a cruel evil laugh.

"It will be harder to compete with Cybertronian anti-viral systems" said Frenzy, but got to work.

"It is the only chance we've got," said Barricade, standing with his big arms crossed. "There are more of them now than us. If they met us in a straight fire fight they could beat us - if we stayed to fight." He had not liked Starscream leaving him practically on his own after the first battle. Fortunately he had managed to get in to help Frenzy by re-onlining him. Even though one of his discs had hit him in the head, his decentralized nervous system had saved the little mech and all he needed was to change back to cassette player form and recharge under Barricades' hood.

"That is why we must use our intelligence!" said Starscream, pointing a finger to his element, the sky. "I want control of this miserable planet if I can't have Cybertron, or the Galaxy, I want all its power, all it's wealth, and you two are going to give it to me!"

He held out his hands to them. He wasn't going to touch them. They were ground-bounds, although they were his fellow Decepticons. He almost missed Megatron - he missed sparring with him and almost gaining a march on him. But most of all, he missed his flying friends, his Trine. Where were they? True, Skywarp had been vicious, and Thundercracker sometimes wimpy and soft, but they both enjoyed flying through the air with him, and he missed their banter and companionship. But he would not admit to any of this.

All Starscream had been able to find out by going out into space - he had been to Mars, where he'd checked his beacon, he'd needed the extra energy for re-entry to Earth's atmosphere - was that other Cybertronian cometary forms were heading their way, but he could not tell for which faction they fought yet.

Never mind, he was leader of the Decepticons now, his dream ambition had been fulfilled, he had two loyal(he hoped) followers, and for the moment, that was enough.

"I am going to beat the Autobots via the Internet with one hand tied behind my back!" he said. He put one hand behind him, and put the other out.

"There!" Said Frenzy, and handed him a memory chip, snickering.

The other two joined in with evil laughs, one high, one low.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2 The Virus -The Pool of Life.

Simmons, SecDef Keller, Maggie, Glen and a black tuxedo-clad driver approached the entrance to the secret Autobot base in a black car with privacy smoked windows.

Simmons had a black cap and green uniform like Will's now as officially Sector 7 did not exist. Ironhide, who was on the gate, still gave him a suspicious look, bringing down his eye-ridges over his white-blue optics, but let him pass on production of his top security pass.

The left the car at the car pool/parade ground- well that's what it looked like behind the gate but it was a space where several Transformers in alt form could enjoy the sun or be washed. Ironhide transformed, setting the 5 km proximity alarm on the gate, and lead them into Optimus Prime's office.

"I've managed to swing it for you!" boomed SecDef Keller, "you have access to the pool of AllSpark energy under L.A.!"

"Oh that's good," rumbled Optimus, from behind his big black marble desk, which had been made to look a bit more like a desk with the addition of an In/out/pending traystack (A4) for hardcopy snail mail and a laptop, processor tower, giant sized phone and speakers-unnecessary but it looked good. It could be replaced by an under the desk communication center later for local forces bases. Also there was a large button for a little (to Optimus) screen on the wall. In the corner was a filing cabinet, a shredder, a bin and a server and some chairs, which could go on the desk, again good for human visitors. Optimus found the bin good for target practice.

"Only one, though, they'll have to take anyone else in on pass."

"I'll call Ratchet, he's my most reliable officer." said Optimus.

As they were low on numbers at the moment his phone had only 3 hot keys;

1. Ratchet's Med-bay

's armoury

3. Bumblebee - home

The laptop showed a schematic of the base detailing these and their co-ordinates to the gate and the car lot. At the moment the fuel base(bar & R.&R. room), chill-out room, store and crew quarters, including a hangar, remained empty.

He hit key 1 and said "Ratchet, I have a mission for you!"

"Be right there, Prime!"

Ratchet turned up and they described the mission to him.

"Can I bring Jazz?" he asked.

"O.K.," said Simmons, "He can't carry much away!"

Ratchet collected the body, now pieced together, with a shudder.

One vehicle went in, however, two came out.

"Sir" said Simmons's driver, waving his geiger counter about, "they have a much greater radiation reading going out than coming in. Shall I haul them in?"

"Leave them be," said Simmons, "You need the right boots for the desert and the food and kit and coats for the arctic. For every war zone, the government keep us supplied. We gave them a free hand. When the government of the U.S. of A., via SecDef Keller, says to an officer "Go in and take what you want" I expect that command to be obeyed to the letter."

They jumped back in the vehicle with Maggie and Glen and followed Ratchet and Jazz back to the Autobot base.

Ironhide let them all in again, this time with his cannons raised in salute.

"Any volunteers coming out to help unload?" Ratchet commed.

While he had been away, Optimus Prime had hit button three and invited Bumblebee, Sam, Mikaela, and the whole Witwicky family as Ratchet had commed that he wanted to have an "Award ceremony" when he got back. Will and Epps had already arrived with Ironhide, Sara having elected to stay at the farm with Annabelle, and various army support teams, and one ciivilian sponsor team were arriving at the base to see if the Autobots wanted them.

Ratchet's ambulance attendant holoforms (he had two, in case of stretcher cases), came out and stood in their white shirts and navy blue pants, one each side of his back doors.

"Wow, " said Sam looking in, "A fruit machine! A one -armed bandit and a pinball one! A vending Machine?"

"Animated sparklings." said Ratchet, "It's really amazing what sector 7 put to the the Allspark then decided they did not want, at least these are alive, and they're sending the other most recent ones from Mission city to us, they don't know what to do with them."

Sam and Mikaela had not seen Jazz do a holoform before, but he ran one up now for their benefit: a chauffeur in silver livery in a double-breasted coat with silver tassels, a blue-visored peaked cap and dreadlocks stepped out of the car, leaned lightly on the hood and crossed his ankles, giving Sam and Mikaela the thumbs up.

"Like the suit, Jazz, neato!" said Mikaela, looking at him with shining eyes. She whistled.

"Eyes off!" called Sam.

"Sam, he's just a hologram!"

"That's not what you said when Bee did a female one!" Sam grinned. "Besides," he added, "I wanna make sure he's the real deal! Jazz!" He pushed past her and started wildly stroking the Pontiac's hood. Mikaela joined in.

"WELCOME BACK Jazz!" She said.

"Yeah, good to see you on the road again buddy!" Sam said.

Jazz's holoform flickered, flicked his cap peak in response, flashed them a pearly toothed smile and extended an open hand, directing their attention to what was inside strapped into a passenger seat.

" Wow, a coffee machine!" exclaimed Sam. it gleamed in silver and black with names like "Espresso" on the buttons. He touched Jazz's dash and leather coated steering wheel, and Miikaela ran a finger along the edge of his door.

They read the names on various boxes inside him.

"Scalextric (Transformers Racing version)! Microwave! Mini-fridge drinks cooler!. Binoculars, camera,Mp3, PDA, cell phone…."

Jazz played on the radio "Stayin' Alive' . Optimus gave him his speakers-they were small to him but quite big to Sam and Jazz.

His holoform waved at Ratchet's but what he said was commed, and it was probably a good thing the sector 7 people did not hear:

"Hey Ratch, these are the guys that tied Bumblebee up and grabbed the kids, couldn't we scare them a little?"

"No Jazz, just see what I'm going to do, wait till they see all the stuff I got off them, they'll be, in their own parlance, green with envy." Aloud he said to Sam and Mikaela, pointing at the coffee machine "Human medical teams tell me they are an essential part of night-shift equipment!"

"Didn't you want any medical equipment for yourself Ratchet?" asked Mikaela.

"The army fully equipped the human and mechanical parts of my Med-bay" said Ratchet. "As for my tools, I keep them all in my feet. Ok, I grabbed a few non-alive pieces of equipment."

"Ratchet," said Sam, as he reached into Jazz's passenger seat thinking over Ratchet's words "these things aren't alive are they?"

"Uh, they were meant for testing and general sector 7 recreation." said Ratchet "I've scanned them but on second thoughts, don't unload them, give me an astrosecond and I'll run this lot past Optimus."

"Debriefing," murmured ironhide.

The ambulance attendants got in and closed Ratchet's doors. Jazz's holoform took a pink handkerchief monogrammed with a silver "J" from his left breast pocket and dusted down the hood, got back in and waved to everyone . Sam and Mikaela got back into Bumblebee, Epps and will into Ironhide, the humans into their respective cars and they went into the base.

Sam and the other humans were let out at the R and R room.

It was equipped with some human sized chairs and tables and a stage as well as the energon bar and some Transformer-sized chairs and tables, lighting and a giant three-piece suite.

There was enough room to transform in and this was where Jazz was joyfully greeted and slapped on the back by his Autobot friends when they came back in. Optimus hugged him.

Jazz went through the full hi-five greeting ceremony with Bumble- bee, slapping their hands together high, low at waist level and spinning round to unite palms saying "Giimmee five!"

"See me high and see me low

Gimmee both and round ya go!" he said and ended up doing a breakdance somersault, running up the wall to the ceiling, dropping on Ratchet and Ironhide, who'd put his cannons away, and spinning on his head. Ratchet gave him a quick surreptitious scan after that.

Ratchet disappeared out the door but looked back:

"Psst sam, can I borrow you for a moment?"

Mikaela got up "Can I come too?

"Yes, you can come, and Bumblebee, you can come if you want to, but no more for now."

He put up both his hands.

"What do you want him to do?" asked Judy

"Its just moving something in to the Medbay, Mrs Witwicky, it's better if a human does it."

"It's not dangerous?" asked Ron.

"No I assure you, I'll have him back to you before the show starts."

They went out and Ratchet put his hand down for Mikaela and Bumblebee put his down for Sam, taking them to the Med-bay and putting them down on the floor.

Then Ratchet transformed again. "I want you to go into the back of my vehicular form, my holoform will help you if you like, and unfasten the oxygen cylinder at the back, the one with the lead aprons hung on it, and bring it out and put it down by my welding bay," he said.

"You took oxygen from the S7 base? I understand but why all the cloak and dagger stuff?" asked Sam.

"This is something I want only you three to know about for now. When I scanned this ambulance there were two oxygen tanks, one full, one empty. You'll understand why I chose you when you do it. The Sector 7 men did not think I could carry energy. I can't carry it out like plutonium bars, but it's not impossible."

"I think I get your drift," said Sam. going into the interior of the ambulance. The holoform helped him detach the cylinder and he took it, wrapping it in one of the lead aprons as a precaution.

"Does it feel the same?" asked Mikaela.

"Yes, it feels warm and alive like the AllSpark," Sam replied.

"Do you remember the AllSpark testing chamber with umbilical cables? That is how I took it. I called and it came in here quite happily. The other thing is: do you know what you always need when you have a working source of high energy?"

"Coolant!" Sam said. Bumblebee had let him listen to his coolant pump next to his spark when he was in robot form, it was similar to the spark-beat and to his own heart-beat but different, and he had told him how important it was that it kept functioning.

"That's right. My holoform will give you the thermos flask that on an ambulance normally contains water. It has it's own protection but I have given it a special decal in case anyone wants to drink it."

He was handed the flask with a nuclear hazard symbol on it.

"That's coolant from around the Allspark energy in there. I didn't hope for much, but after the success of this expedition I am going to ask to go back with some sparkling bodies as soon as I can make them. Who knows how long the power of the AllSpark will last now it has mainly gone?"

Sam wrapped both things in aprons and brought them out. When Ratchet had transformed he handed them to him and got in Bumblebee's hand again, this time with Mikaela. Bumblebee warbled at the presence of the Allspark energy.

They went back to the main room and he rejoined his parents.

Ratchet was the M.C., for the Awards ceremony, he got Jazz up to present the awards. Everyone else sat at the tables and in the chairs, except Ironhide and "his" humans who took the couch. That is, he picked it up, put it where he wanted it, sat in one corner and helped them in.

Optimus presented the first award which was to:

"Maggie Madsen!" Ratchet called, and handed over a rifle.

"From the first ship. For bravely defending us against a Decepticon- in high heels!"

Maggie just went up and accepted it - although she had fired the pistol at Frenzy she was not really into guns.

"And if you want to come here and keep a lookout for Decepticon hails, please do."

"I'm SecDef Keller's assistant, but thanks, I'd be happy to if it's allowed." Ratchet handed her two memory chips for her little laptop which she always had with her. "That's the Decepticon signal, and that's ours."

"Hey, that's classified!" cried Simmons.

"Classified? Why would Ratchet not know them?" said Optimus Prime.

"She's my assistant, she's allowed to have them!!" SecDef Keller said.

The transformed vending machine robot, Dewbot, came in in a French maid's uniform and started to serve Mountain Dew and donuts, people grabbed cans and popped them and thanked him, and he opened the bottles for them. Glen patted him: this robot had things he could really relate to, besides computers. Perhaps Dewbot would enjoy playing computer games and swapping codes too.

"Glen!"

Ratchet held out a mobile cell phone which he recognised as his, but it couldn't be, could it?

"Ah thanks, a replacement for my Nokia," he went up and took it from Jazz.

"Hey, it looks the same!" He accessed it, "Hey, these are all the songs I put on it. All 2,000! How 'd you do this, Ratchet?"

"I asked the Allspark and it did it" said Ratchet seriously.

"That's classified! How'd he get hold of it? It was a blackened circuit case tossed in a bag marked 'Nuclear Waste!' " Simmons said, getting up and walking around huffily.

"Well, all your Nuclear Waste went to that base when your organization ceased to exist, Reginald," said SecDef Keller. "Maybe he has superior life-sign sensors, maybe the AllSpark imprinted the SIM-card onto the nearest power source it recognised, who knows? They're better with this than us!"

"It's not gonna start firing little missiles at me, is it"?" Glen said.

"No, said Ratchet not unless it needs to. It's in dormant heavy disguise, with its own free will. In fact, _she _is. She's a femme -bot.

"But I _know_ about it," said Glen. It'd be great to have a cell phone that knew how to defend itself, someone I could relate to…"

"You have to be sure, we are talking about a child here. In every relationship there is an element of risk. The worst thing for a new young life is not to be wanted!" Ratchet stated. "You would get help, here," he added more leniently. "I'll give you formula energon for it."

Glen looked over at his most familiar friend, Maggie.

"You up for it?"

She nodded.

"Ok as you will be feeding her"-he handed over a bottle with a valve in it and then looked from Maggie to Glen "At least, it doesn't have to be the femme-"

"I'll feed it -her," said Glen.

"Her name is Su-O-Mic, after the capital of Finland," said Ratchet. "The AllSpark is helping us by creating more femmes."

"Ronald Witwiky: this is a ship 's chronometer and barometer set from your Grandfather's ship."

The brass on them shone.

"Judy Witwiky, as the only mother in the room, you can have the little flask of coolant from round the Allspark."

"Oh Ratchet, I can't take your holy water! It'll probably bring everything in my kitchen to life and I have enough trouble with two children," she said looking at Ron and Sam.

"Hey!" Ron said jokingly.

"Let me share the clock, that's fine with me." said Judy.

"Sam Witwiky: A pocket watch engraved Archibald james Witwicky-"said Ratchet.

"Why weren't these things included in the inherited property?" asked Sam.

"I can explain," said Simmons "they were frozen in with NBE1 and considered too dangerous to be removed until later."

"Kept for testing, more like," murmured Mikaela darkly.

"Mikaela Banes: A telescope and an electric saw, not alive or anything." She went up and accepted them.

SecDef Keller approached Optimus who had taken one of the big armchairs (Bumblebee had taken the other with Mikaela)-"Government officials are not allowed to accept gifts, they are considered bribes, but we have something to offer you-please accept these support and liaison teams and one civilian sponsor truck for a month's training at least. There are six men, two technical support officers, two medical support officers, one financial assistant and one military liaison officer -this is Major Shaun Raven, a mechanical engineer, and his daughter Fiona, with a photo of the rest of their family."

"Why would we need any other liaison than our friends?" asked Ratchet.

" We accept your help for now and in battle," said Optimus, looking at the photograph where a younger girl held an Optimus Prime toy, "That's my other daughter Teresa, with Louise," Shaun said.

"At least she is holding it the right way to support a sparkling." Optimus said.

As if the word "sparkling" had set it off, the cell phone starting clicking and whistling agitatedly. Glen stroked it and listened to it.

Maggie had put the chips in her laptop and it started beeping.

"More coming," she said.

" From which side?"

"Both!" She showed the screen to SecDef Keller.

"Show this to Captain Lennox! Let's finish this later!" He said holding up a hand.

"Rollout!" called Optimus, as the Transformers had received similar signals in their own audios. Everyone stood up, Jazz beckoned over SecDef Keller and Maggie, took them outside and transformed.

"Glen, come with me, you've got a sparkling," said Ratchet. The Witwickys and Mikaela went with Bumblebee, Will and Epps with Ironhide, Optimus took on Shaun and Fiona. The only human left out was Simmons.

He jumped in his car with his driver shouting "Follow that Convoy!"


End file.
